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Pain molecule find could take the sting out of sunburn

A PROTEIN that causes the agony of sunburn has been identified.

Steve McMahon at Kings College London took skin biopsies from rats and 10 healthy humans after reproducing sunburn by exposing them to ultraviolet-B radiation. In all, a protein called CXCL5 was overproduced.

Sunburn is an inflammatory response to UV damage; CXCL5 and other molecules are recruited to the damaged area and activate nerve fibres, causing lasting pain.

Inflammatory pain also causes arthritis. Finding ways to neutralise pain mediators like CXCL5 could lead to new treatments for such conditions, says McMahon (Science Translational Medicine, DOI&colon; 10.1126/scitranslmed.3002193).